French fashion house Louis Vuitton

Modern-day works of art, Frank Gehry’s handbag collection for French fashion house Louis Vuitton, tells a tale of elegant design and precise craftsmanship.

the ‘Twisted Box’ bag, earlier design Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton. Right, the ‘Capucines MM Concrete Pockets’ bag. Photography by Ivona Chrzastek, fashion by Jason Hughes)

An icon of architecture, Gehry was approached by Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH first in 2006 when he was tasked with designing Fondation Louis Vuitton, a gallery housing the most iconic designs and history of the brand in Jardin d’Acclimatation.

“I felt incredibly honoured that Bernard Arnault would trust me with such a rare project,” says the architect looking back on the project.

The project, in fact, was so successful that it led to a second: a collaboration between architect and fashion house to produce a limited-edition handbag collection that combines art, architecture and luxury fashion in one masterful stroke.

The eleven-piece collection, inspired by Gehry’s most notable designs, includes an embossed leather edition of the original canvas “Twisted Box” and the angular “Capucines MM Concrete Pockets”, reminiscent of many of Gehry’s minimalist buildings with their concrete exteriors. There’s even a Plexiglass design that evokes the façade of Gehry’s Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.

“It’s not so much about making sure that the original vision is translated,” says Gehry. 

“Rather, it’s about working with the team to create the object of desire together. The craftspeople working on the bags have constraints in what the leather or materials can do. You have to work with those limits and pick and choose where to push the boundaries… [but] they were able to produce things that were beyond my wildest dreams.”

“‘What Louis Vuitton brings to the table is a deep respect for the artistic process,” he says. 

“We try things, we see what works and what doesn’t.”

The ‘Capucines MM Concrete Pockets’ bag features a calfskin exterior that faithfully recreates the concrete textures and tones of Gehry’s buildings, thanks to a cutting-edge 3D screenprinting treatment